Starting in the 20th Century, Alberta, Canada and its mining companies have strived towards the development of cleaner energy and the reclamation of regions affected by resource extraction. The most important areas that are affected by the mining industry are tailings ponds created by the storage of waste materials after mineral extraction. Obtaining useful data regarding how these materials respond to reclamation efforts is the key towards developing faster and more reliable methods of reclamation.
To date, sampling has been performed using specialized hand tools and rovers. Using hand tools for collection is often difficult and expensive because the majority of tailings do not yield enough bearing strength to support a human's weight. In an attempt to further sampling efforts in regions of tailings with lower bearing strengths, autonomous terrestrial samplers have been developed. Unfortunately, the rover, being the primary vehicle for autonomous terrestrial sampling, is still too heavy for many regions requiring sampling. As a result, large portions of tailings ponds cannot be effectively examined.
Oftentimes, regions of settled tailings are inaccessible by land due to the low bearing strength of the tailings. In the regions of 0 to 30 kPa, the tailings pond surface becomes very soft and sludgy. As a result, it is very difficult for surveyors and their equipment to avoid becoming stuck while operating. With the recent developments in embedded systems and wireless communications, robotics have become an opportune means for monitoring in these regions.
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are becoming increasingly popular in a variety of industrial applications. In the past, UAS have been deployed to monitor industrial sites in a variety of capacities. UAS provide a significant benefit of being able to hover above the ground in a single location, preventing any disturbance of the ground below. Additionally, a multi-rotor or helicopter UAS possesses superior stability, maneuverability, and the capacity to carry a significant payload. To date, UAS have not been utilized for soil sample collection for monitoring reclamation activities.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a sampling device that works in combination with UAS technology to deploy the sampling device, allowing efficient and reliable collection of samplings. In addition, there is a need for a sampling device to be deployed from an existing multicopter platform, with an easily replaceable sampler holder, that can access regions of settled tailings that are not approachable on ground due to low bearing strength of the soft tailings.